Red Wings Winless in California

Watching the Red Wings throughout this west coast road trip has been an exercise in frustration. Detroit gave up a two-goal lead in Anaheim after dominating the first period. The Ducks would use that reverse momentum to mop the floor with the Red Wings for the second half.

They were flat outplayed in the Los Angeles Kings game and barely escaped the shutout.

In Sunday’s 5-4 overtime lose to San Jose, Detroit couldn’t maintain a lead for love nor money. Even when the Sharks gave up back-to-back power plays that led directly to Marco Kasper’s goal at the end of the first period, it didn’t feel like they were winning. It felt like they were waiting for the bottom to fall out. No one said it better than Red Wings’ Captain Dylan Larkin:

“Again, we had a lead and we just got sloppy… We get out of our structure and they go down and score. It’s unacceptable,” Larkin told FanDuel Sports.

Lines change, team doesn’t

Even with the changes in the Red Wings forward lines, the same issues kept cropping up. The Red Wings were still reliant on the power-play to score. Only one goal in regulation came from a 5 v 5 possession for the Red Wings. The team is just not playing well when they don’t have the man advantage.

Three players were clustered around the front of the net looking at Talbot as the puck rebounded off him on San Jose’s first goal. That left William Eklund free to fly in from behind and flip the puck over an off-balance Talbot. Eklund struck again with a fluky shot that deflected up and over the top of Talbot’s glove from the blue line to tie the game at 2.

Michael Rasmussen responded with his own fluky goal, bouncing the puck off of Alex Wennberg’s skate into the net. However, a goal from Tyler Toffoli tied it up before the third period. A goal from Luke Kunin had the Sharks leading for the majority of the third. Alex DeBrincat sent the game into overtime when the Red Wings got a power play in the final minutes of regulation, but ultimately the Sharks came away with it.

Macklin Celebrini would get his first game winning goal in overtime just 46 seconds into the overtime period.

Not Sustainable

The Red Wings had three power play goals, and it’s the only thing that kept them in the game. Three of their four goals were from man-advantage situations, and that’s been true for most of their wins throughout the season. They’ve been relying on Talbot and Alex Lyon to stay hot in order to keep them in games when they aren’t drawing penalties. The Red Wings are already paper thin on defense, and Simon Edvinsson got shaken up in the third period with what appeared to be a shoulder injury. He was already dealing with a knee injury that kept him out of the lineup against the Kings.

Something has to change. The team is already showing signs of buckling under its own weight, and it’s really not that heavy. These mistakes and problems would be acceptable for a young roster, but that’s not what’s being put on the ice. Detroit is putting a group of veterans and a couple of young players out on ice. Outside of Larkin and DeBrincat, no one over the age of 25 is playing at an acceptable level. That’s not OK, and it’s going to sink this team if they don’t figure something out.